A defensive dynamo

Bears free safety Mike Brown's energy ignites his teammates too

January 18, 2002|By Melissa Isaacson, Tribune staff reporter.

Mike Brown has no idea what to do with all the excess energy.

He could always fuel a small town or perhaps a Boeing 747, but that's not feasible, so the Bears safety will have to be content talking smack with those wise-guy Bears linebackers and pantywaist receivers whom he could level at any given moment if that sort of thing were encouraged at practice.

Because it is not, he will simply buzz past them with "I could have got you, I could have got you," in that annoying, little-brother kind of way that simply makes them smile.

If he could rehearse game-winning plays, surely Brown would. Instead he has to bide his time until Saturday to ply a skill that has become his trademark. And the waiting is making him a little crazy.

"When I have a bad game, it's usually because I'm overexcited or just playing out of control," he said. "That's something the coaches have talked to me about because I do get really excited."

Says teammate Warrick Holdman: "You see Brownie and he's got the glasses and he's like a Superman-Clark Kent or something. But he's one of those guys who gives you that excitement you need. He'll be out there [Saturday] saying, `Are you ready? Are you ready?' You need those kind of guys."

The presumption is that the Bears' NFC semifinal game against the Philadelphia Eagles will come down to Brian Urlacher and his fellow linebackers stopping or not stopping scrambling quarterback Donovan McNabb. It's just as likely to come down to the Bears' frenetic free safety.

Brown says once McNabb starts scrambling, the cornerbacks and safeties will "plaster," or clamp, on an Eagles receiver. But once McNabb is about 3 yards past the line of scrimmage, they're coming for him.

"He hasn't really taken any big hits," Brown said. "That's what we want to do. If he gets out running, we want to tackle him just to punish him and make him think about it."

Brown said he never noticed McNabb sliding in the film he watched this week, and McNabb sounds as if he's not likely to start now.

"Anytime you play against hard hitters like they have in their safeties, I like to put moves on those guys," McNabb said. "If those guys go with the moves, they won't hit me. . . . It's going to be exciting."

Despite the snarling image Brown projects on game day, you picture him locked in a meeting room all week, wire-rims firmly in place, dissecting the most likely latitude and longitude of a McNabb scramble.

And it's Brown's intellect that most cite when discussing the 2000 second-round draft pick out of Nebraska.

"You look at Mike Brown," says defensive backs coach Vance Bedford, "a guy who's 5-10, 200 pounds, runs a 4.6 and you say, `Why does he make some plays he makes?' And it's because he is smart; he has great awareness.

"There are a lot of guys with great speed, great size, yet they can't make the plays Mike Brown can because he has instincts. He knows how to study. He understands the game."

Holdman recalls training camp 2000, when the coaches went through their usual practice of peppering rookies with questions just to see if they were paying attention.

"And [Brown] knew the answer every time," Holdman said. "I was like, I don't even know what he's talking about and I've been here two years.

"That showed this guy takes his job seriously. He's only been in training camp five days and he knows most of the playbook."

But Brown takes issue with the brainiac image.

"I think that's been blown out of proportion," he said. "I'm very instinctive. I just react to things I see on the field."

A highlight film of the Bears' big plays this season would star their free safety reacting in a whirling, slamming, tipping, catching, occasionally yapping featured role, a symbol of a season that to this point has been nothing short of mystical.

Brown had a team-leading five interceptions, but it was the two for game-winning touchdowns in consecutive overtimes against San Francisco and Cleveland that secured his place in the memories of Bears fans forever.

The first--a 33-yard return for a touchdown that marked the quickest overtime decision in NFL history--was followed by a charging mob of howling teammates who swallowed Brown in a giant joyous end-zone hug.

The second, a 16-yard return originating off the fingertips of Tim Couch and Bryan Robinson following a two-touchdown comeback in the final 28 seconds of regulation, had Brown streaking straight from the end zone to the locker room, skidding and falling down the concrete runway as he went.

Once inside, the scene was equally amazing, Brown recalled. "It was actually kind of quiet, more eerie than anything," he said. "We were just looking at each other saying, `I can't believe this just happened again. Two weeks in a row.' That's when we were really like, something special is happening here."